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To Seekers of the Life More Abundant 



A Christmas Message 

to You 
With the New Year 

Villa Faulkner Page 




Published by the author 

34 Gramercy Park 

New York 



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COPVRIGHT 1909 BY 

VILLA FAULKNER PAGE 



)GI.A253602 



" For there is born to you this day in the 
city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the 
Lord." 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE 
TO YOU 

" O Holy Night ! The stars were brightly shining, 
It was the night of our dear Savior's birth. 
Lone lay the world in sin and sorrow pining, 

Till He appeared and the Soul knew its worth. 
A thrill of joy the weary world rejoices, 

For yonder, see ! The bright and guiding Star ! 
4 Fall on your knees ! ' Oh, hear the Angel voices, 
O Night Divine ! O Night, when Christ was 
born." 

The words fall lightly though per- 
chance seriously. It is only from the lips 
of the one who knows — whose life has 
held the night upon which the Star rose 
— whose heart has been the cradle to 
which the Babe, the Christ Conscious- 
ness, came, that they fall with the thrill- 
ing cadence which betokens a realization. 
[3] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

" For there is born to you this day in 
the City of David a Savior, who is Christ 
the Lord." * " Glory to God in the high- 
est, and on earth peace among men in 
whom He is well pleased," 2 chimes 
grandly the chorus of voices, not alone 
in the ears of the Shepherds, but of all 
Earth's Sons. 

Truly, glory and praise and thanksgiv- 
ing! Peace and peace alone can follow 
when the heart's song is thanksgiving. 

" For there is born to you this day in 
the City of David a Savior, who is Christ 
the Lord." I can but pause to marvel 
how we have read the words since that 
first Christmas morning when into our 
childish hearts the joy of the Year's Glory 
crept, — the unspeakable joy of the mys- 
tery, the accession of love and peace, 
which filled the household. I am think- 
ing how, as the years brought to us their 

iLuke 2-1 1. A. S. E. 
2 Luke 2-14. A. S. E. 

[4] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

burdens and happiness, we still read 
them — the burdens all unlifted, the hap- 
piness without augment because of any 
hidden meaning in them. 

(So have our acres of diamonds crowd- 
ed to our threshold. So have the jewels 
hung quivering with light above our un- 
crowned heads. So have our lips dropped 
all unknowingly priceless treasures of 
speech. We knew it not! We knew it 
not!) 

To-night we are sitting by a fire bright 
as never burned a fire before; the untold 
throes of soul travail forgotten, in our 
hearts a great rest and peace for there is 
cradled the Christ! born to us — to you 
and me — Dear Heart. 

To you! You sit and wonder. To you! 
Others have made larger claims. You 
perhaps have hung back timidly while 
those bolder, more insistent, have trans- 
lated the " you " into its personal mean- 
ing, and so have found earlier than you, 

[5] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

maybe, the great secret of Creation, viz., 
that save as it means you, you, out of all 
the myriads of created life forms, the 
whole plan of Creation is a failure. It is 
only one of the multiple phases of evolu- 
tion, Dear One, by which we are held in 
the belief that we are huddled in masses 
— if at all — into the Kingdom. " The 
Great Spirit of Life can never be taxed 
with care for you or me " — we say — 
" units in the throng of life." — " Not a 
sparrow falls to the ground "— " Yes, yes! 
That's a sparrow, you see, a sparrow. 
That's not I." 

The entire plan of the Word from lid 
to lid is to show the evolution of the In- 
dividual. Indeed, the whole Book of 
Nature teaches the Infinite's care for the 
Individual. Is not one flower as beauti- 
ful as another? Lacks the wild rose one 
iota of delicacy or breath of perfume be- 
cause it grows unseen? Is the plumage 
of the birds in forest depths untrod by 

[6] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

man less beautiful? Rather, the great- 
est perfection of color or liquid sweetness 
of note is found therein. Seen or unseen 
the infinite lavishness of detail — the care 
for each species, for each individual of 
that species, is everywhere visible. No 
matter how small the form, Infinity's law 
holds. " Be ye perfect," is the keynote 
of God's work, " even as your Father in 
Heaven is perfect." The perfect whole 
must have perfect parts. The conclusion 
is inevitable. And so there is born to 
you, to YOU, this day in the City of 
David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 
This Day! And for this day were you 
created. This it was in the heart of God 
for you in the dim, dreaming past of your 
life, aye, in the very beginning when 
God thought of you and you were, — 
when God loved the image of you and 
so you took form. There was first the 
" natural man," (" There is first the natu- 
ral man," says Paul, " and then the spir- 
[7] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

itual.") the man who as the creature of 
instincts and impulses grew and waxed 
perfect of his kind. You knew not in 
those days— " child of nature " that you 
were — that you had any save a very re- 
mote relation to God the Father. " Oh, 
yes! God made the world and all that is 
therein." Parrot-like you recited the 
words, and parrot-like — knew it not. 
You were happy as " a child of nature." 
You followed the desires of your heart 
and, according to law, grew. 

Perhaps you recall now the days of a 
childhood when there was a spontaneous, 
free life — no repression of whatsoever 
kind. If you loved you declared it. If 
you hated you said so, and the blow fol- 
lowed the word. You quarreled and 
made up. There were no questions asked 
of Fate. It was the simple, natural life. 
Simple because the complexities caused 
by the shams of later life were wanting. 
There was only one life within, without, 

[8] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

so you were glad and you laughed. You 
sorrowed and you wept. It was later 
that you learned to hide the joy in your 
heart because some one might envy you. 
It was in after years you learned — sor- 
row-taught — to smile and speak brave 
words with aching heart. Later it was 
that you queried why and how of a Fate 
which gave back no word; — that you 
sought in vain an answer from a Spirit 
which, you were told, was foreign to you, 
for " you were conceived in sin and shame 
— a creature vile and lost — an outcast — 
a pauper." You could not know, Dear 
Heart There were centuries of race- 
thoughts and fear-thoughts back of you. 
Those who taught you gave as they were 
taught, and as they had fared, so they fed 
you — on stones instead of loaves. Or, 
perhaps, as a little child — old in soul — 
you too questioned, beat your little head 
upon the ground because, baby though 
you were, you could not know the why 

[9] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

of your nature, and so you feared and 
hated it. The purely animal was giving 
way to the mental. The intellect had not 
reached the point of knowing. That is 
the Wilderness, Beloved, we have been 
wandering through. One taste from the 
Tree of Knowing that was not knowing 
— and the gate of Eden was closed. Made 
in the image of God, and knowing it not. 
One with God, and knowing it not. A 
part of Divine Consciousness, and know- 
ing it not. Knowing nothing of God, 
Man or the Universe, and in the light of 
the insufficient interpretation you were 
able to put upon life, what wonder you 
stumbled and fell? What wonder, in 
the conflict of your Jungle Ancestry with 
the God-to-be within you, you were mad- 
dened, frenzied? All unversed, how 
could you know that the subtle reason- 
ing of the whispering voice in your ear 
was the reasoning of an imp of Darkness 
in the garb of an Angel of Light, or 
[10] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

that the demon you thought it to be with- 
in you and to which you gave battle (as 
did Quixote the windmills) was reall 
an Angel of Light seeking to redeem you I 
Ah, you did not know, Dear Heart! 
How could you? There was no one to 
tell you, and in the infernal din of the 
warring within, you could not catch the 
voice which said, " Be still and know 
that I am God." You were made in the 
image of God but you did not know it. 
Your awakening mind barred for you the 
way to the merely, unquestioning animal 
life of other days. God within had said, 
" Know thyself." Unrest, discontent, 
question, wonder, dismay. Now up on 
the hilltop where a glimpse of fair lands 
beyond blessed your sight and stilled your 
heart. Then the path bent downward — 
forever — you thought. And (yes, I 
know) you did not want to live any 
longer. You tried not to, perhaps. But 
you know most of us say that, one time or 
[ii] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

another, and many of us foolishly try not 
to, some time or another. That does not 
signify — you forget that folly now as you 
sit here — the Christ Babe in the cradle 
of your heart breathing softly. It was 
only that you were apart from God and 
were homesick and knew not the cause 
or nature of your malady. There was 
only one possible remedy for it all. Lit- 
tle by little as days, months, years, went 
by, the occasional rifts widened. You 
knew then that whatever else may be God 
Is and loves you. Knew that the Great 
Spirit of life is really and truly your 
source — that the God is within you — 
that the " I and the Father are one " may 
be spoken by your soul as well as by the 
soul of the Man of Nazareth. You knew 
that the Divine Consciousness had en- 
tered your intelligence. It had perme- 
ated you always but you knew not its 
presence in your Soul. Not till to-day 
was the birth complete. 
[12] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

You have felt so separated all these 
years — separated from Life. It might 
be that the great Feast of Life was spread 
in lofty halls but you were not a guest. 
" The Father's Home "? What had you, 
an alien, stranger, outcast, to do with 
" Home " ! — And all the while the doors 
were swinging wide and the face look- 
ing out into your night was gentle and 
loving; but with bitterness and rebellion 
in your heart because, having been given 
a taste for royal purple you were yet in 
rags, you saw not. Now in your own in- 
telligence you know how God, though 
universal, yet individualizes in you; — 
that all those divine attributes of life and 
beauty are within you — that you are to 
attain one day their perfection in your 
personality. (" Be ye also perfect 
* * * * .") As the Christ Child stirs 
in your heart to-night, you know how 
God the Father has become a closely per- 
sonal friend in your life. You feel the 
[13] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

beauty of the oneness with Him. Your 
whole being quivers with the joy of it. 
In the City of David! The City of your 
Being, Beloved, now that you know the 
Divine personal nature of God The In- 
finite. 

" For there is born to you this day in 
the City of David a Savior, who is Christ 
the Lord." 

It really seems the most impossible of 
all — this personal relation which has 
come between you and God. You re- 
call how it has always seemed before, that 
so incomparably wonderful a thing as In- 
finity could have very little relation with 
individual forms. The old mystery so 
long pondered. It seems so simple now. 
The Expression seems so naturally linked 
with the Expressor. You wonder how 
any possible system of belief could have 
so hidden the truth. God the Sole Cre- 
ator. Then everything that is is made by 
and through Him. That means you and 
[14] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

me. And He must therefore be in His 
own work. That also means you and me. 
You draw a long breath. Oh, the blessed- 
ness of knowing that you — YOU have 
found out that God delights in you per- 
sonally — loves to dwell in just the you 
you are. " There is So and So " — you 
say — " who has already the bearing of a 
King. Any maker might be proud of 
such a masterpiece — might love to hover 
fondly over his perfect form, delight in 
his glorious mind — joy in his great soul! 
Or So and So with her Madonna face — 
her whole being like an outbreathed 
prayer. These seem truly Temples of 
God; but I ! "—Well, the best proof of 
its possibility is that it is so. What else 
can signify that voice in your ear, " O 
Child, greatly beloved, fear not"? Or 
that soft touch of the Christ in your con- 
sciousness that thrills you so? Oh, that 
cradle is a sacred place! The curious 
who may come to gaze on the wonder 
[is] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

too eagerly, to question, to doubt, — they 
must be excluded for a time till this Holy 
Night has passed. 

This, then, is what is meant. " In the 
City of David " means only that in know- 
ing how the God-love is for you — even 
as the Christ knew His Sonship — there 
has been established a personal relation 
between you and the Mighty Source of 
Life, — and you have become, as the name 
David signifies, Beloved. The City of 
your Consciousness has become the City 
of David. 

It was the years-long unfoldment of 
your consciousness, this preparation by 
which you became worthy of the name 
Beloved, that made possible this marvel- 
ous birth. Now the warring ceases. 
The Holiness of God (His Wholeness) 
seems so comprehensible with the coming 
of this new spiritual life. The enigma is 
solved. Whole! Every element of na- 
ture united with its fellows. A use for 
[16] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

all of body, mind, emotion, soul. All 
beautiful — holy. No more query. No 
more hating of self. Christ, the master 
of all, born in your consciousness this 
night — now takes the helm. Control, 
self-direction, fullness of power, in all this 
splendid work of creation. " The body 
of an animal, the heart of a child, the 
mind of a man, the soul of a woman, the 
consciousness of a God." This means 
the perfect man or woman. The crown- 
ing work of God in man's creation is 
realized in your wholeness — the Holiness 
of God. (" ' Fall on your knees! ' Oh, 
hear the Angel voices. O Night Di- 
vine, O Night, when Christ was born! ") 
" For there is born to you a Savior, who 
is Christ the Lord." A Savior! Saved 
from what? — From all these elements of 
your consciousness that are not the best. 
It has been — it will be — a difficult mat- 
ter to know always that from which one 
is to be " saved." It will be, generally 

[17] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

speaking, the negative elements, the be- 
liefs in the power or right to control, 
of those things which have made you un- 
happy. You do not just now see how it 
all is or can be, life has been such a mys- 
tery. But wait till the Christ Child 
waxes strong and He will make it all pos- 
sible. You see we have lost sight of the 
fact that many of the things we have 
termed essential are really non-essential, 
so we have spent a vast amount of energy 
in meeting them as though they were 
giants instead of shadows. I presume 
that will be yet for some time a thing 
to cause us thought — perchance vexation 
of soul. But one learns how to distin- 
guish between essentials and non-essen- 
tials — between primary and secondary 
matters. Is it an affair beyond your 
power? Then surely it does not concern 
you. Can it really injure you? If not, 
it truly does not matter. The power to 
injure you — to retard your real progress 
[i8] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

lies solely within yourself. Yes, Dear 
Heart, it is another of the things we have 
to learn and learn by the living. It is so 
natural to say — " If I only had this, I 
could be happy." And then after days 
have gone by and have given all that 
you asked, you cry, " Where can I find 
happiness that will last? " Forlorn as 
it seems this is really a state to be de- 
sired, however much one may protest at 
first. It is only when shorn of every aid 
that one really strikes out bravely for 
himself. And I take it that such is Life's 
method of dealing with us, and of show- 
ing us where our real happiness rests. 
The makeshifts to which we resort! not 
knowing that those things alone are " es- 
sentials " which are not to be touched by 
time or place or circumstance. Learn- 
ing this we learn to live serenely. If it 
rains, what matters it? If it snows, why, 
what matter? If a seeming misfortune 
comes, why, what matters it? Rather 

[19] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

give thanks for the power of endurance 
in yourself and to the love which opens a 
door for you. 

So the larger life comes to you — the 
life more abundant, for the bringing of 
which, in the awakening of your con- 
sciousness and mine and the world's, was 
He, the Man of Nazareth given. 

It all resolves itself into a matter of 
giving — this affair of " being saved." 
You see we have been taught to associate 
the thought of giving with that of sacri- 
fice — the Shibboleth of all religions. So 
the idea of sacrifice has wrapped itself 
about that perfect Son of God — and the 
real issue has been lost sight of just be- 
cause as yet the world has not known the 
true lesson of sacrifice. Sacrifice is al- 
ways a painful matter, say the untaught 
— a giving that must necessitate loss. 
Rather it is painful only as it is unwill- 
ing. You extend your hand with a rose 
to your friend. If your hand closes on 
[20] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

the rose — unwilling to release it — the 
thorns pierce your hand. Open it wide 
and it is lifted with no pain. Do you 
not see how in all this splendid life of 
organization running through nature 
the smaller gives its life for the next 
higher form? Not sacrifice but a glad 
giving. A mother and child sat opposite 
me to-night in a crowded subway train. 
The mother's face was beautiful — faith- 
ful. The girl so like yet so unlike. The 
image in that mother-face, bereft now 
of its fresh color and fair outline, so 
stamped on the fair, flower-like face of 
the child. You could hardly say in what 
feature it was. It was a cast — a breath. 
Looking into the mother's face you saw 
there that which had passed to the 
child's. You saw and felt in the fond 
look and touch of the mother the joy 
with which that fair, imaged self in her 
had been transferred to live again in the 
fair child. Sacrifice? Yes, if by sacri- 

[21] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

fice you mean a great joy in being lost in 
yet another and a fairer form. Sacrifice? 
Yes, such as the brave little leaves make 
when drifting earthward they lay down 
their load of mineral wealth gathered 
through long days and nights of shining 
and softness, — days of beating, insistent, 
loving sunlight — nights of brooding, en- 
folding silence; — lay it all down to pass 
into Earth's great storehouse of life, to 
reappear in another year's glory of leaf- 
age. Lay it down as drops the rose her 
petals to come forth in to-morrow's rich- 
er bloom. Yield it up as does the sun its 
light and heat and life to reappear in 
myriad forms of life. As yields each sep- 
arate voice of nature its harmony to swell 
the Chorus of the Choirs Invisible. So 
do you, as the Christ Child in your life 
grows, yield up the lesser that the great- 
er may appear. Give up the pleasure 
which would minister to the lower self 
that the higher may wax strong. For in- 

[22] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

stance you leave a comfortable chair — 
you carry a parcel — you relinquish your 
car seat — you bestow the cup of loving 
service — all in the name of this Manger 
Child now cradled in your conscious- 
ness. The desire whose fulfillment prom- 
ises great joy you brush aside for the 
sake of the weaker soul who would stum- 
ble therefrom, — you relinquish it because 
it bars the way to a nobler desire's ful- 
fillment in yourself. You learn how to 
choose as this Holy Night Consciousness 
grows. The sacrifice is a glad giving 
that makes always for more and more 
life in all you contact. 

" I am come," breathes the Child in 
your soul, " that ye may have life and 
have it more abundantly." Surely in this 
speaks the voice of God, whose presence 
alone can give life. Christ is the Lord 
God of all the Life that is. The Child 
is become the Savior, the Giver of Life, 
and Life is from God alone. 
[23] 



A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO YOU 

So does it all knit itself together — so it 
is all made clear. In the Child you see 
the Loving Father of Life. (O Heart 
of Love, so, often, have you turned your 
head to look into the face of the Father- 
God standing at your side, and lo! you 
saw the face of your Beloved! Through 
those we love God's face shines out — 
God's voice sounds clear.) 

" There is born to you this day in the 
City of David a Savior, who is Christ the 
Lord!" O Heart of mine! draw close 
your brooding love about this Holy 
Child. Before this hour — you have been 
starved for love. Now pour it out and 
find the joy of its return! — for Life and 
Love are born to-night. Bid the old 
Manger Chorus swell grandly out — 
" Peace on earth among the men in whom 
He is well pleased " — and still bid them 
sing softly for the Babe but breathes as 
yet. Oh, Holy Night! 
(OLifel OLove! O Christ! OGod!) 
[24] 



With the New Year 



" I go to prove my soul ! 
I see my way as birds their trackless way. 
I shall arrive ! What time, what circuit 

first, 
I ask not. 
In some time, His good time, I shall 

arrive ! 
He guides me and the bird, 
In His good time ! " 



WITH THE NEW YEAR. 

So the year has passed! Seed time and 
harvest. The Promise, the Fruition. 
Glorious days of springing life, — bud, 
blossom, fragrance. Days of intoxica- 
ting shining and joy. The cup of Life's 
wine full-foaming. Dreams, hints of 
ecstasy undreamed. Life, Life, Life! 

Summer days! long and full. The 
promise fulfilling, life taking on material 
vesture. Days of unfolding splendor, — 
nights cool and dreaming. Shine of 
moon and stars — love, adoration. God 
walking through the cloisters of the 
Soul! 

Now the fullness of life — The dreams 
coming true. The grains garnered, the 
harvest past, the cycle full. The God of 
promise, of shaping life, of abundance, 
of realization, in it all. 
[27] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

And the New Year. 

We never outgrow the sentiment 
attached to the coming of the New 
Year. Did I say sentiment? Surely 
unless with its inner meaning of beauty, 
the word is not well used; for the emo- 
tions, with the best of the mind's pow- 
ers, which meet in sentiment are those 
that spring from the " inner knowl- 
edge " for which we have no adequate 
expression. 

It is always a death and a life — the 
two great mysteries of Being. Two? 
Rather one, and that the Mystery of Life. 
It is the ever-recurring question until 
that day of the Christ birth in us and 
then we know that all is Life, and death 
but an instant in the great process of Be- 
coming; for 

a The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, 
Hath had elsewhere its setting, 
And cometh from afar." 

[28] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

No matter what death we die or lives we 
live, — no matter if we come from a pre- 
vious earth life or from a Star un- 
dreamed; — no matter if the twelve 
months passed be sad or joyful, we — all 
untaught by Conscious Mind — drop both 
alike and reach out for the new, seizing 
its fresh-made promises — clasping its 
new-offered flowers. Death loses its ter- 
ror for so softly does the life enfold it 
they become one in the blending. No 
shock — no change. A passing that is not 
seen, a transition unfelt, a life that " so 
sweetly ceased to be it lapsed in Immor- 
tality." Can you tell w r here one wave 
ends and another begins? As well say 
then which is life or death. 

Surely it is the inner wisdom and that 
alone that makes us always to look to the 
just-opening door — welcoming the new, 
new life. The Soul's search for God 
finds expression here. It puts gently 
aside the barriers made by life's claims. 
[29] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

On! On! Or it beats with insistent 
hands upon the Future's door. More 
life, wider outlook, greater difficulties in 
problems, more responsibilities. We 
wonder why. " I've only gotten out of 
one hard place to fall into another," we 
lament. It is only our Soul's search for 
God — and we are Becoming. 

It is the coming repeatedly around to 
things we thought done up and put away 
yesterday; meeting to-day the temptation 
we told ourselves we had vanquished yes- 
terday. " Why must it forever show its 
face," we demand impatiently, despair- 
ingly. It was a hard struggle, maybe, to 
meet and master that situation — and with 
swelling pride when the struggle was 
ended, the fever of anger or dismay or 
self-pity, cooled, we said, " I certainly 
am developing." And lo! The next day 
or week or month brings back the same 
problem — possibly in a similar guise, 
possibly in a different one. Why? It is 
[30] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

the process of Becoming, in the Soul's 
search for life. 

I wonder if you recall how, as a child, 
you learned the puzzling contents of your 
Arithmetic. There came a day wfien 
you could write, perhaps after diligent 
practice, let us say, two thousand three 
hundred forty-six, and write it perfectly. 
One awful day a command came: " Write 
twenty-three hundred forty-six"! Oh! 
The consternation! The dismay! And 
in how many, many different ways had 
each item learned to be stated! If you 
knew certain problems — remembered 
just how or when to multiply or divide 
or add — the agony when there appeared 
on the weekly test not the same but dif- 
ferent problems, requiring the applica- 
tion of the same principle, maybe, but 
such a totally new combination of condi- 
tions. You marvelled so at the cruelty of 
a teacher who could thus basely betray 
your trust, in the perpetration of such a 

[31] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

deed. Day after day appeared the vary- 
ing relations of the elements. There 
were given Base and Rate to find Per- 
centage, Amount and Difference; or Dif- 
ference and Amount, to find Base, Rate 
and Percentage — and so on through the 
thirty combinations and problems made 
possible by the machinations of some 
mind of Awful Genius! And even when 
you were pronounced " Finished " in 
Arithmetic, was it not that only in after 
years you learned the real meaning — the 
simple beauty of the quondam complex- 
ities? 

I have always a deep sympathy with 
and for the bewildered little minds of 
children. I recall a young teacher — a 
fine, earnest young man, receiving his 
professional training, who taught faith- 
fully one day this simple statement: " I 
and O are capital letters." Imagine his 
dismay when the class reproduced the les- 
son as follows : " I know, are capital let- 
[32] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

ters." I wonder now how a teacher can 
scold or punish children who do not know , 
because of bewilderment of mind. Hon- 
estly now, how well do you and I know 
our Combinations and Problems in the 
ordinary lessons of life? Perhaps we 
have been out of the purely mental stu- 
dent life long enough to have dimmed its 
memories, and recognize now that we 
were often, as teachers, impatient with a 
seeming stupidity which was in reality 
bewilderment of mind. We talk a for- 
eign language to the " little ones " for- 
getting how that which is so plain to us 
— after years of effort — is meaningless 
and mysterious to them. They are be- 
wildered as you or I would be if placed 
on a foreign shore with only natives and 
a strange language to help us. Who shall 
bridge the gulf between the ignorant and 
the knowing mind? Surely no one by 
thought processes alone. It is by contact- 
ing children, or the experiences, duties, 
[33] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

sorrows, joys, life itself brings, that we 
develop its wisdom. 

I heard it said in recent years concern- 
ing a wise, gentle woman of large experi- 
ence in dealing with clouded lives, " She 
never spoke an impatient word to a be- 
wildered mind." The thought goes 
home and does its work. Bewildered! 
That is true of us. We are long in learn- 
ing to the point of comprehension. It is 
one thing, you see, to apprehend — quite 
another to comprehend. We may " lay 
hold of" in an apprehending — have a 
concept as it were — but years alone bring 
the fullness of comprehension. " Knowl- 
edge comes but wisdom lingers," says 
Emerson. 

This, then, is the meaning in our lives 
of the continually recurring problems. 
Body, brain, emotions, soul, must in turn 
learn its habit of action — must Become. 
There is need of the physical exercise re- 
peated day after day in the gymnasium 

[34] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

that the muscles Become strong or able 
to move with that grace which is the ease 
of forgotten toil. There is need of the 
mental application in various lines that 
one Become able to memorize, to reason, 
to control and direct the imagination. 
There is need of the daily control of 
emotion or feeling that one may Be- 
come a self-mastered man or woman. 
There is need of abiding in the pres- 
ence of the Divine Image that we may 
Become like it. So all along it is a proc- 
ess of Becoming, and the fullness of 
wisdom — Love's Twin — is the beautiful 
result 

The line, " We rise on the steps of our 
dead selves," had always for me a grew- 
some sound until I learned the secret of 
Nature's process of Becoming; and knew 
that as we pass at the movement of the 
clock from the Old Year to the New, so 
do we grow out of the old habit, the old 
pain, the old passion, the old desire. Be- 
[35] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

coming a new man or woman in a day? 
Oh, no! after many days. 

u Still, as the spiral grew, 
He left the past year's dwelling for the new, 
Stole with soft steps its shining archway through, 
Built up its idle door, 
Stretched in his last-found home, 
And knew the old no more." 

Nature's great process of Becoming. 

So it appears we must have all that 
life brings. We must have the same 
things to master day after day. Nature 
(who is also God) is so wise in her meth- 
ods of teaching. There is never a flaw 
in the Plan of her Lesson or in its Devel- 
opment. The Questions she asks of us are 
direct, clear, definite. Her Illustrations 
are apt, her Applications true, her Re- 
view and Drill past criticism in their 
thoroughness. Her Manner of presen- 
tation is full of the quiet dignity of the 
teacher who is sure of her ground. It 

[36] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

would seem wise on our part to trust 
ourselves to her teaching, knowing that 
by her law of attraction we are drawing 
to ourselves just the lessons we have need 
to learn; — but in our soul bewilderment 
we would fly from her, " I can't do it " 
— the child says. " I don't like Drawing, 
let me do History." The wise teacher 
shows him how he can draw, and so 
teaches that he likes Drawing best of all. 
" I cannot live in this environment," we 
say. " God has no right to put me in a 
place where I am subjected to this test. 
It's not fair. Only let me have a chance 
— a fair chance, and I'll show you what 
I can do." Dear Heart, you know al- 
ready how to do that you would choose, 
and do it well. You are Past Master in 
that art. Are we to stop forever on the 
same subject after becoming an adept in 
it? I expect we are just where we are 
because we need the teaching and expe- 
rience to be gotten by this contacting and 
[37] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

no other just now. What would you 
say to the pupil who was trying to slip 
out of a hard lesson? Would it not be 
after this fashion? " Face the work, my 
boy. Don't be faint hearted. Be a man. 
Put forth your effort and win!" Shall 
we be brave enough to take our own di- 
rection and say — " Face the thing trou- 
bling you. Take it firmly by the hand; 
look bravely into its parts." We never 
learn by running away, by endeavoring 
to close the book, by this makeshift or 
that, by seeking explanations always of 
others. One Teacher there is (who is also 
God) and it is His prerogative to teach. 
An assistant may help, may show us how 
wise is the Great Master and so help us 
to understand His methods. After that 
we go trustingly with Him. Moreover, 
each problem holds in itself its own law 
of solution. Ah, but we do not want to 
see it. It is the one thing we do not want 
to learn. We would let it pass by, it is 
[38] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

so hard. Storms, hysteria, melancholia! 
"I'll die before I'll learn it!" And 
there is one key to the whole situation. 
Look now in your own hand, Comrade, 
and see if it be not there — the key of 
Love and Justice. " Love? I do love! " 
— Yes, but how? Grudgingly, hesita- 
tingly, chillingly, — fitting our giving to 
our liking not to the need; — after the 
manner of so much Christmas giving — 
because one has it on hand and does 
not really need it oneself; or because the 
possession of the gift by some one else 
would add to our comfort. (You re- 
member the wife who gave her husband 
at Christmas a large, handsome rug for 
the front hall, and paper for the dining 
room.) Or we love, always putting our 
love in the balance, so much love so much 
return; or so much question or condition. 
Does the great Giver so? Nay! His 
sunlight is for all. His rain on the lov- 
ing and unloving; on the loving that they 

[39] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

may increase their loving; on the unlov- 
ing that they may learn to love, to be 
grateful and thankful. 

This conclusion, Comrades, out of all 
life brings: The environment we have 
with all its problems big and little is the 
one we need just now; the one we have 
drawn to ourselves by the need we have 
shown our Teacher, and it will remain 
until we have mastered it. But oh, al- 
ways and forever " Standeth God within 
the Shadow, keeping watch above His 
Own." Nor will He let us be tried be- 
yond our strength to endure; — and al- 
ways is heard the whisper of the Still 
Waters and we see the shimmer of the 
Green Pastures; and one fair day we 
learn to choose them always — learn so 
soon as we cease putting our will, our 
personal will, against the Law — the 
King's will. (" I take it that the only 
sin lies in putting the will of the part 
against that of the whole.") 
[40] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

There is need perhaps that we hold 
in abeyance a power of leadership and 
learn that — 

" No ruler can be great 
Unless he learns with dignity to be a Servitor. 
The least shall be the greatest, 
The most true in all things, howe'er small, 
Shall be at last most valiant." 

Or there is need to learn to give without 
weighing a return. Or to learn to fix 
firmly in our souls that which we seem 
to be and to seem what we really are. 
(" Knighthood is in the Spirit and the 
Soul, the deeds that show the Knight- 
hood to the world are but the chance and 
circumstance of fate.") True it is that 
true growth is from within out, but in 
our hearts we at times assume that which 
we are not — speak out the word — brave 
and strong — our hearts belie, and so sor- 
row one day because " we had not the 
stock wherewith to make good." " If 
[41] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

you have assumed a character beyond 
your strength," says Epictetus, " you 
have both played a poor figure in that 
and neglected one that is within your 
strength." Or you — Dear Heart — who 
always view yourself with telescope re- 
versed. 'Tis we who know your great- 
ness, your worth. One day will you 
learn that because God dwells in you, you 
are worthy. Look now! and see your 
Sonship's garb. 

Practice, practice, practice! Practice 
Justice and Love — Practice God in all 
His attributes. 

" One, two, three; one, two, three; one, 
two, three," over and over the little one 
takes her dancing steps, or plays her 
scales. " Dear child," we say — " she is 
so faithful." 

Shall we be less so in our practice? 

I learned recently of a system of music 
by which in an incredibly short time its 
pupils play well. It aims to make each 
[42] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

one an Artist by bringing his soul to his 
fingers, (only an Artist does that, you 
know) and is based on a fine power of 
thought concentration and application. 
It does away forever with mechanical, 
half-hearted work. One must be alive — 
and this the pupils are taught to be. It 
makes use of the natural joy of children 
for this purpose. Before they know they 
are doing the right things for love of it; 
and a power of tone production is se- 
cured that delights you in listening. In 
the " Grown-up " it calls up forgotten 
joy and uses it with unfailing results. 
Briefly it is to " Think and do " — not 
" Think and dawdle." " Stimulate the 
center and free the channels of expres- 
sion," I read in other days. — I've learned 
what all this means: Seeing and doing, 
Perception and Will, Wisdom and Love, 
and there we are! In the very Throne 
Room of Deity. 

" Life means something to B — " said 
[43] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

a friend. " It makes him so different." 
Right perception, right estimate of val- 
ues, right doing, and a large willing- 
ness to perceive, to estimate, to do, this 
makes life " mean something." No, I 
truly do not know how a life can mean 
anything which has not God in it. Until 
I have established for myself a faith in 
the unfailing Good, life is colorless, 
meaningless. " What's the use o' noth- 
ing" asked the pessimistic urchin — and 
straightway answered it, " Nothin's the 
use o' nothin'." How can it be worth 
anything unless there be an All-Good or 
God? 

" Why aren't you singing, Willie?' 1 
asked the teacher. — " Don't wanter." 
" Why, don't you ever do anything un- 
less you — ' wanter'?" — "Naw; not un- 
less I wanter." 

The " wanter" may have to be born in 
us, according to law, out of fear, if Na- 
ture's whip and spur be our only teachers, 
[44] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

(The fear of the Law is the beginning 
of wisdom.) so difficult is it to let go of 
that to which w r e cling by habit of 
thought or acquired desire. 

If there be one injunction more than 
another I would lay upon my soul as the 
New Year dawns, ft is this: " Let go." 

I knew a little lad of four who met the 
Christmas season in the true spirit of a 
metaphysician. He cleared his little cup- 
board of all his old toys — no matter how 
dearly loved. In various ways they were 
disposed of so that when the generous 
gifts of the New Year came he was ready 
with clean, empty shelves. " And do you 
mean you would have me clear out all 
that the Past has left me? That were in- 
gratitude." — We need never let go of 
anything, Dear Heart, that is construc- 
tive. It is only the memories of those 
things that hold us back or are so divid- 
ing our attention that we have not the 
power of putting the life — the spirit, into 
[45] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

the act of the moment. " Forgetting 
those things that are behind "? " All the 
loves and victories and beauties, the 
griefs for dear ones?" Yes, and no. 
To sit always by a fireside however 
bright, becomes enervating, does it not? 
To linger always in the presence of the 
loves and victories and beauties — never 
so priceless, so noble, so rare — to dwell 
forever in the Lotus Land — why, answer 
the question yourself. Who will meet 
to-day's loves, win to-day's victories, en- 
joy to-day's beauties, if we are always to 
remain in the Sanctuaries of yesterday's?- 
The things of yesterday have given us 
their inspiration, have they not? lent 
their charm? If they have given way to 
others, as the wheel turns on, why dream 
all day of them? The beauty and the 
love made strong your heart for the 
day, and that strength was used in your 
Becoming. The victory won, passed 
into the power that makes to-day's vic- 
[46] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

tories possible. Why dream all day of 
them? 

The sunshine and starshine, the brook's 
low ripple, the shadows on the grass un- 
der the maples or chasing away on the 
hillside, the robin that sang at twilight, 
the gathering in the home of the chil- 
dren, as the crisp Autumn nights crept 
on, the Mother drawing the blankets 
close about the little ones as winter wind 
whistled by, the Father's patient toil — 
Dear God! You catch the breath and 
choke the sob and brush aside the blind- 
ing tears that you may better look at the 
picture — drink once more its inspiration 
— then change the slide of life's camera! 
They gave their joy, their life. They 
were woven into the fabric. The loom 
clicked on. Why dream of them all day? 
It is a taste of old wine and its strength is 
not lost — we sip but sweetness. We 
poured out Life's libations, it is true, and 
maybe, lifted the empty chalice of our 
[47] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

heart — but thank God, not empty for- 
evermore. God fills it yet fuller and 
fuller. So long as there is God, the chal- 
ice may not be empty. The old griefs 
and errors? Away with them. 

We have no use for these " back num- 
bers of ourselves." We put aside yester- 
day's daily paper, last month's magazine, 
why not last year's edition of ourselves? 
No, it shall be a new and up-to-date 
issue. Fear of the future? Why if 
the Great Good has brought us thus far 
safely, why fear to go still farther even 
tho' we may not see^ it all — even tho' 
some of it lies yet for us " around the 
corner? " 

" I go to prove my soul ! 
I see my way as birds their trackless way. 
I shall arrive ! What time, what circuit first, 
I ask not. 

In some time, His good time, I shall arrive! 
He guides me and the bird, 
In His good time ! " 

[48] 



WITH THE NEW YEAR 

So let it pass — the low-burning fire — 
the Day — the Year. All they had to give 
of warmth, of sunshine, of effort, of vic- 
tory, of joy — they have given. 

Close the door on them all. Through 
them we became more worthy to stand 
where the work is most pressing, the 
needs most clearly seen. We pick up the 
broken blade some one has cast aside, 
perhaps, or with fresh, shining weapons 
of the newer warfare of Peace and Good 
Will stand smiling, confident, faithful, 
to meet the New Year. 



[49] 



Books by 
Villa Faulkner Page 

Prayer 

Flexible cover, old white and gold 

50 cents. Postpaid, 55 cents 



A Christmas Message to You 

and 

With The New Year 

(The two in one cover) 

Flexible cover, old white and gold 

50 cents. Postpaid, 55 cents 

With The Master Builder 

and 

Stones for Building 

(The two in one cover) 

Paper cover, old white and gold 

30 cents. Postpaid, 35 cents 

Published by the author 

34 Gramercy Park 

New York 



Some Helpful Books 

The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science 

Paper, 50 cents 

Bible Mystery and Bible Meaning 

Cloth, $1.25 

The Dore' Lectures 

Paper, 50 cents 

The above three by T. Troivard 

Lessons in Truth 

By H. Emilie Cady, Cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cents 

New Thought Simplified 
By Henry Wood, %% cents postpaid 

Right and Wrong Thinking 

By Aaron Martin Crane, $1.50 postpaid 

In Tune With The Infinite 
By Ralph Waldo Trine, J 1. 2 5 

Psychic Life and Law 
By Charles Oliver Sahler, M, D. $1.50 

To be obtained from 

Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., Publishers 
93 Federal Street, Boston, Mass. 

or Roger Brothers, Publishers 
429 Sixth Avenue, New York 

or supplied by Miss Page at the list price. 



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